The present invention relates to an apparatus for the manufacture of plastic parts from thermoplastic, thermoset and/or elastomer material by injection molding or reaction injection molding. Such apparatus includes a multi-station locking unit of horizontal or vertical configuration designed to hold a number of molds and an injection unit associated therewith for the simultaneous injection of the molds. The apparatus further includes a movable center mold clamping plate sectioned crosswise relative to the locking direction, the two parts being kept together by a high-speed clamping device, and a melt conduction system arranged between the two parts. The melt conduction system has one or a number of separate melt conduction rails, each of which is rigidly clamped on its face side between the sectioned mold clamping plate lengthwise relative to the direction of flow of the melt, and a median centering collar and a widened melt inlet with rounded walls designed to receive the nozzle system arranged on a flange of each melt conduction rail.
The injection molding machine described above is disclosed in my earlier filed application U.S. Ser. No. 865,197 and in my application filed contemporaneously herewith, U.S. Ser. No. 909,836, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The arrangement of one or several separate melt conduction rails between the parts of the center mold clamping plate that is sectioned lengthwise relative to the locking direction assures rapid and uniform injection of the mold with any shape of mold. This design of the center mold clamping plate with the melt conduction rail requires consideration of an appropriate cut-off nozzle system.